PRIME bids farewell to two Board members and welcomes new representatives

PRIME are pleased to announce that with the departure of long-serving Board members, Binda Patel and Annette Byron, it broadens representation as it welcomes new members.

This week, Binda Patel from The Sutton Trust, stands down as
a member of the Board after three years.“It has been an honour to represent
the Sutton Trust and to advocate for more diversity and inclusion in the law,”
she said.

Thanking Binda for her tireless work, PRIME Chair Nicholas
Cheffings, said: “Binda has made a huge contribution to PRIME’s work. She is
dedicated to the cause of social mobility, smart and insightful. She shared her
experience and her time generously and it was an absolute pleasure to work alongside
her“

The contributions and impact of Binda, and Annette Byron of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer,
who stepped down during the course of last year on the expiry of her term of
office, will be deeply missed. PRIME are
however pleased to have a number of new Board members, having taken the
opportunity to broaden the range of backgrounds, experience and skillsets
around the table.

Olivia Cole, a recently retired London
Headteacher and former Ofsted Inspector, who is now an education consultant, joined
at the end of last year bringing with her a depth of knowledge and full
awareness of the issues schools are facing, as well as great understanding of
how best to engage with them and their students.

Joining the Board this month is Lucy Lewis
of Lewis Silkin’s Cardiff office and Elizabeth Robertson of Skadden Arps Slate
Meagher & Flom’s London office. Lucy is an employment
lawyer and partner in the Employment and Immigration team at Lewis
Silkin. She heads their Cardiff office and sits on the firm’s management
board as the partner representative for diversity and inclusion, CSR and
sustainability. Elizabeth is a highly acclaimed partner who was state school and Polytechnic
educated. Like Lucy, she feels very passionately about the issues PRIME seeks
to promote.

“I’m really pleased to be invited to join the Board. As a profession, we are at an exciting moment of change and innovation but we cannot face the future unless we act now to achieve greater diversity and representation at all levels.” says Lucy.

PRIME decided to further expand representation on the Board
to include its alumni network by inviting those who had taken part in a PRIME
work experience scheme, or similar, within the last 7 years to apply for the
role. After an overwhelming response from dedicated alumni, they are delighted
to be joined by Arun Sohal-Pall and Molly Lewis.

Arun is a final year law student at the LSE and a PRIME Alumnus. He works alongside other diversity and inclusion programmes targeted at facilitating social mobility in law, including SEO London, Aspiring Solicitors and MyKindaFuture and has secured a training contract at Kirkland & Ellis. Molly is a trainee solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, having begun her journey into the world of law by attending a Sutton Trust Summer School. Molly strives to give back to those organisations that provided her with such invaluable support. They have already proved invaluable in their contribution, with their insight into what it is like to be at the student end of social mobility schemes.